The present invention is in the field of ticket printing and issuing, and pertains particularly to an apparatus for writing and issuing tickets.
Prior art ticket processing mechanisms have been used in ticket terminals for moving a ticket through various stages of issue processing. For example, the DM-4 Datamark ticket issuing terminal, manufactured and sold by the assignee of this patent application, includes a ticket advancing mechanism having a pair of spaced-apart, parallel ticket rollers which move a ticket in a figure-8 pattern for processing on both sides of the ticket. By processing is meant the printing of information onto and validation of information on one or more faces of a ticket. The ticket advancing mechanism of the Datamark terminal can be understood by reference to U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,553, which is assigned to the assignee of the subject patent application and incorporated herein by reference.
Another ticket advancing mechanism for moving a ticket through various stages of processing in a single circular ticket guide is taught in the cross-referenced patent application, which is assigned to the assignee of this application and also incorporated herein by reference.
Other mechanisms for processing documents such as tickets by writing and issuing the documents are exemplified in apparatus which propel a ticket along an essentially linear pathway which is branched near its terminus to provide separate channels for issuing or impounding a ticket. Such branching is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,649. In general, ticket processing equipment of this sort requires the provision of a linear ticket path, branches in the path, and a sequence of reciprocating mechanisms distributed along the path to propel a ticket through the path and into any of its branches. One will appreciate that such an architecture results in an elongated ticket processing apparatus which occupies an amount of space proportional to the length of the path. Further, the plethora of driving mechanisms requires a complex electromechanical control mechanization to orchestrate the operations of the driving mechanisms.
An effort to minimize ticket processing path length in a ticket processing terminal is well represented by the DM-4 Datamark terminal of the assignee. The DM-4 terminal is especially significant in that the figure-8 ticket pathway permits processing on both sides of a ticket in a relatively compact configuration. However, in applications where extreme compactness is required, it is possible that the two drive rollers which form the ticket processing pathway might limit the use of the DM-4 terminal.
Therefore, there is an evident need for a ticket writing and issuing apparatus with a configuration which will further reduce the size of the apparatus by minimizing the space required for movement of a ticket undergoing processing, yet which permits the apparatus to effectively write and issue a ticket.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a compact, yet multifunctional, ticket writing and issuing apparatus.